Croquet is different from golf. Golf has a lot of variables that can go wrong, you choose your club, and you try your best to hit it the same way every time, and unless you’re a professional golfer it’s all about trying to not screw it up.

Croquet isn’t a “simpler” game, but it is a much smaller game, so you have a lot more control over where exactly the croquet ball ends up rolling. However, choosing just how hard you want to hit your ball is still very much a challenge.

Killer Croquet approximates that challenge with a three types of dice throws.

Softly (Blue): 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3

Fairly (Red): 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8

Wicked Hard: Both Dice added together

As you can see from the diagram it sets up three major arcs for your ball to travel along. Simplified, you’ll likely roll a “1” on the blue dice, you’ll probably roll “3” or more on the red dice, and wicked hard will probably send you in the “5”, “6”, and “7” range. However, like Croquet there is a bit of room for error of over hitting or under hitting your ball, so your big hit might only end up going two spaces, or you might roll the “3” on the blue die when you wanted a “1”.

There are three major things to consider when lining up a shot:

Can I hit the thing I want

Can I line myself up for a thing I want

Can I score a Roquet without going off the edge.

Roquets are an important part of the game, knock your ball through a wicket or into another player’s ball and you’ll score two extra actions, but if your ball hits the edge of the board, you’ll lose those extra actions. So dependent on where you’re positioned on the board you’ll have to keep a close eye on what the upper bounds of your hit might be. When you hit your ball wicked hard, there is almost always a chance that your ball could hit the edge of the board.

Importantly, though, when your ball collides with a person or ball, it’s likely to bounce off in a new direction, or even stop altogether, so if you send your ball on a trajectory with many targets, you have a better chance of it staying on the board no matter how hard you roll the dice.

Lastly, it’s really interesting to see new players make the mistake of just blindly shooting towards their target, while on a second play, players are a lot smarter about trying to get “on line” with a target. Oftentimes it’s impossible to hit the target you want from your current square, but if you pay close attention, you’ll see sometimes you’ll have very high chances to hit it onto a space that can get to the target on the subsequent turn. Furthermore, hitting your ball onto a space with another players ball and scoring a roquet is often times the fastest way through a wicket, even if the other player’s ball is further away from the target wicket!

Goes to show how much variability that can go into hitting a rashafrassing ball through a rassafrassin hoop. Use these tips to ensure you really knock it out of the park! (well, specifically not hit it out of the park, because you lose actions . . . you’ll figure it out)